It was during an interview with NME in 2024 that Yungblud exclusively revealed he’d been making a double album. Talked up as a project with “no limitations towards imagination”, you’d be forgiven for downplaying yet another lofty declaration from Dominic Harrison. Often judged on his statements before his actual music, the narrative around his story so far has arguably been a battleground between people labelling him the saviour of rock versus those reducing him to a performative, privately educated ‘industry plant’.
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In the past year, it’s the former argument that’s gained serious traction. The Doncaster artist has released the Number One EP ‘One More Time’ with Aerosmith and scored three Grammy nominations, winning one for an internet-breaking cover of ‘Changes’ at Black Sabbath’s ‘Back To The Beginning’ show. Not to mention his documentary, newly opened central London space and rumours he will play his hero, Ozzy Osbourne, in an upcoming biopic. If you haven’t got it yet, Yungblud has been everywhere.
Released last June, the first half of ‘Idols’ marked a significant shift in Harrison’s sound. After three albums primarily mixing colourful punk with high-octane pop and rap, ‘Idols’ actively embraced the Britpop and classic rock of his youth. While he’d teased this direction in previous singles, including 2020’s ‘Mars’ and 2024’s ‘Breakdown.’, ‘Idols’ effectively abandoned the rebelliousness of his 2018 debut ‘21st Century Liability’. Instead, the project showcased grandeur, luminosity and a newfound maturity to Harrison’s songwriting.
Who could have imagined the artist behind ‘Machine Gun (F**k The NRA)’ penning a nine-minute strings-fuelled epic like ‘Hello Heaven, Hello’, which NME named one of the best songs of 2025? ‘Idols Pt. 1’ and ‘Ghosts’ unashamedly channel the guitar work of U2’s The Edge, while ‘Zombie’ – the album’s biggest track – towers like a skyscraper in his discography. For fans of his more colloquial early material, ‘Lovesick Lullaby’ bridges the gap with a ‘Parklife’-esque take on bright Brit-rock.
Although Yungblud deliberately wears his influences on his sleeve, the lyrical crux of ‘Idols’ explores the exact opposite. Harrison reminds himself “All you are is a self-fulfilling prophecy / The production of your own temptation” on ‘Supermoon’, the conclusion to part one. It completes his journey of “self-reclamation”, realising his mind – not the Freddie Mercury posters on his walls – holds the answers to his problems. ‘Idols II’, he warned, “plummets you back down to earth”. So what does life after enlightenment look like for Yungblud?
Exactly where the story left off, with the wispy, fragile opening of ‘I Need You (To Make The World Seen Fine)’: “Pictures of idols / Rise up and fall / Wish you knew it all”. On ‘Idols II’, two of its seven tracks directly revisit songs from part one, including a ’90s makeover of ‘Zombie’ that features The Smashing Pumpkins and their colossal wall of sound. The other, ‘War Pt. II’, flips Harrison’s identity crisis on ‘War’ into the blossoming of a new flower (“Are you feeling inspired? / Are you having the best time of your life?”) in the spirit of ‘Dakota’-era Stereophonics plus orchestral might.
‘Zombie’ aside, ‘Idols II’ is spearheaded by the strum of the acoustic guitar, even cutting through the bouncy folk-rock riffs of ‘The Postman’. Given the scale of the ballads Harrison pulls off throughout ‘Idols’, the bare-bones approach to ‘Time’ feels weak, with its lyrical sentiment (“I just need more time / To figure out who I’m / Gonna be in the morning”) surely demanding more gravitas. ‘Blueberry Hill’, however, is as rock opera as it gets, nodding back to ‘Change’ in an immense, theatrical climax of immortality.
Increasingly, casual social media observers will tell you that while he seems like a great person, Yungblud still lacks a definitive hit. Despite the weight of the overall sound, ‘Idols’ and ‘Idols II’ still arguably lack that decisive knockout moment. But Harrison gives it his best shot on ‘Suburban Requiem’, a seismic closing act of defiance and existence that wrings out every ounce of energy left in the tank.
It bookmarks the latest chapter in the story of Dominic Harrison with a fairytale ending, now living with the freedom of thought that once eluded him. Sonically, the double album might not redefine the future of rock, but – as the soundtrack to his most successful era yet – it has helped guarantee the future of Yungblud. He had to “go to hell and back” to get there, but ‘Idols’ and ‘Idols II’ confirm that Dominic Harrison has taken “one step into heaven”.
Details
- Record label: Island Records/Locomotion
- Release date: February 20, 2026
The post Yungblud – ‘Idols’ and ‘Idols II’ review: a king-sized statement from the crown prince of rock appeared first on NME.